"For many years there was a feeling that the wonderful things on the web were going to dominate and we'd have a world with less conflict, more understanding, more and better science, and good democracy," Berners-Lee told the Guardian during the summit. "But people have become disillusioned because of all the things they see in the headlines." (Image: Web Foundation)

Warning that the web he helped invent in 1989 is "functioning in a dystopian way" due to extreme corporate concentration and paltry privacy safeguards for consumers, Tim Berners-Lee unveiled what he described as a "Magna Carta for the web" during the international Web Summit in Lisbon on Monday and urged all governments to support basic principles of internet freedom to ensure that the web serves "humanity, science, knowledge, and democracy."

"For many years there was a feeling that the wonderful things on the web were going to dominate and we'd have a world with less conflict, more understanding, more and better science, and good democracy," Berners-Lee told the Guardian during the summit. "But people have become disillusioned because of all the things they see in the headlines."

"Humanity connected by technology on the web is functioning in a dystopian way," Berners-Lee continued. "We have online abuse, prejudice, bias, polarisation, fake news, there are lots of ways in which it is broken. This is a contract to make the web one which serves humanity, science, knowledge and democracy."

We’re at a 50/50 moment for the web. We’ve created something amazing together, but half the world is still not online, and our online rights and freedoms are at risk. The web has done so much for us, but now we need to stand up #ForTheWeb#WebSummit

I’ve just shared a new contract #ForTheWeb at #WebSummit. It’s going to take all of us - citizens, governments and companies - to solve the challenges that face our web today. Check out the starting principles and supporters: https://t.co/gM4bUiYQFS

Contract for the Web

The web was designed to bring people together and make knowledge freely available. Everyone has a role to play to ensure the web serves humanity. By committing to the following principles, governments, companies and citizens around the world can help protect the open web as a public good and a basic right for everyone.

Fight for the webSo the web remains open and a global public resource for people everywhere, now and in the future.

We commit to uphold these principles and to engage in a deliberative process to build a full “Contract for the Web”, which will set out the roles and responsibilities of governments, companies and citizens. The challenges facing the web today are daunting and affect us in all our lives, not just when we are online. But if we work together and each of us takes responsibility for our actions, we can protect a web that truly is for everyone.

Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

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Further

A belated, heartfelt happy birthday to Harvey Milk, assassinated in 1978 for daring to come out of the closet, be himself and insist on his rights, who would have turned 89 this week. On Harvey Milk Day, California passed a resolution honoring his "critical role in creating the modern LGBT movement." From one ally: "He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it." These dark days, his message resonates more than ever: "You stand up and fight."

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